Eau Claire County, Wisconsin Eviction Risk: Moderate

Eau Claire County carries an average eviction-risk score of 4/10 (Moderate) across its 6 incorporated cities, placing it 11th of 72 Wisconsin counties, meaning only 10 counties statewide carry more risk. That standing puts Eau Claire County in the higher-risk third of Wisconsin, so landlords and investors should not treat the Low label as a pass on due diligence. With an average rent of $1,056 and a rent-burden rate of 24.9%, most renters here are keeping housing costs in a manageable range, which supports consistent rent collection across the county's roughly 86,351 residents.

The intra-county spread, from 3.4 to 4.1, is modest but meaningful. A portfolio concentrated in the county's lower-risk villages will perform differently from one anchored in its urban core. Operators who understand where individual cities land on the risk curve will price their units, screen tenants, and size their reserves more precisely than those who rely on the county average alone.

The cities inside Eau Claire County

Augusta leads the county at 3.9/10, the single highest-risk municipality in the market. Although its population of 1,341 limits absolute volume, the elevated score signals tighter operating conditions relative to county peers. Eau Claire, the county seat and by far the largest city with a population of 70,322, follows at 4/10, meaning the bulk of the county's rental stock sits in a city that anchors the higher end of the local risk range. Together these two cities account for most of the county's renter activity and set the tone for portfolio underwriting.

Altoona (population 8,878) scores 4/10, a step down from the county's urban core. Seymour and Eleva both score 3.8/10, and Fall Creek is the most landlord-favorable city in the county at 3.5/10 with a population of 1,493. Risk is genuinely hyper-local here: a landlord moving a single city over can shift their effective risk profile by several tenths of a point, which compounds across a multi-unit portfolio.

State-level laws that apply here

All Eau Claire County landlords operate under Wis. Stat. § 704 (Landlord and Tenant). For non-payment of rent, Wisconsin law requires only a 5-day notice before filing, one of the shorter cure windows in the Midwest. Lease-violation notices carry a 14-day cure period, and no-cause terminations at the end of a lease term require 30 days. Once a landlord files, uncontested cases typically resolve in 21 to 45 days; contested proceedings can run 45 to 120 days. Court filing fees run $95 to $175, sheriff lockout fees add $50 to $150, and attorney fees commonly range from $500 to $3,000, so a contested removal can cost $645 to over $3,000 in direct outlays before accounting for lost rent. Full detail on those timelines and costs is available in the Wisconsin eviction process and Wisconsin eviction costs guides. Wisconsin does not impose rent control and preempts local rent-control ordinances, so no city inside Eau Claire County can cap rents beyond state law. Just-cause eviction requirements do not apply under current Wisconsin statute, giving landlords meaningful flexibility at lease end. Entry notice is set at 12 hours under Wis. Stat. § 704 (Landlord and Tenant). Anti-retaliation obligations fall under Wis. Stat. § 704.45, and habitability standards are governed by Wis. Stat. § 704.07.

With a poverty rate of 13.3% and a renter share of 44.6% across the county, nearly half of occupied housing units are rentals, giving landlords a broad tenant pool, though the poverty rate is a reminder that unit pricing and screening standards matter, so review each city's individual score in the grid above before committing to a specific submarket.